Former Investment Bank Employee Sentenced For Insider Trading Scheme

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that WOOJAE JUNG, a/k/a “Steve Jung,” was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to three months in prison for insider trading.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Woojae Jung used material nonpublic information stolen from his investment bank employer to net nearly $130,000 in illegal gains.  His conviction and sentence signal that those who aim to profit by stealing confidential information from their employers and clients will be held accountable.  Our Office will continue to fight insider trading to protect the integrity of the marketplace.”

According to the Indictment, the allegations in the Complaint, and statements made during the proceedings in Manhattan federal court:

WOOJAE JUNG, a/k/a “Steve Jung,” worked at an investment bank (the “Investment Bank”) that provided, among other services, financing and consulting to clients in connection with mergers, acquisitions, and corporate restructurings.  The Investment Bank has offices around the world, including in New York, New York, and San Francisco, California.  JUNG was a vice president.  In his role as a vice president at the Investment Bank, JUNG had access to, among other materials, electronic files maintained on the Investment Bank’s computer server, including files containing material nonpublic information (“MNPI”) relating to various clients.

JUNG used his position at the Investment Bank to obtain MNPI about a number of the Investment Bank’s clients and then, in multiple instances, JUNG used that MNPI to execute profitable securities trades.  In an effort to conceal this illicit trading, JUNG conducted these illegal trades through a brokerage account held in the name of another person (the “Brokerage Account”).  In contravention of his employer’s rules about outside investment accounts, including that such accounts be disclosed to the Investment Bank, JUNG secretly accessed, used, and traded in the Brokerage Account repeatedly between in or about 2015 and in or about 2017, including on hundreds of occasions when the account was accessed through IP addresses subscribed in JUNG’s name.

Over the course of the scheme JUNG traded in the securities of at least 10 companies based on MNPI and made more than approximately $130,000.

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In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Kaplan sentenced JUNG, 38, of San Francisco, California, to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $30,000 fine and to forfeit $130,000.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  He also thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission, which previously filed civil charges against JUNG in a separate action.

The prosecution of this case is being overseen by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Thomas is in charge of the case.